You Put Your Arms Around Me And I'm Home
by AlexandriaElizabethN
Summary: Mac couldn't bear to hear those words again. He refused to believe what his boss was telling him. Or, Jack may be leaving Phoenix, but he'll never, ever leave his kid. (Title from Arms by Christina Perri) Rated T for two swears


"No! He can't!"

Matty was startled by Mac's outburst, thought not surprised, considering the information she had just given him.

"I'm sorry Mac, but I'm not lying. Dalton-"

"No, don't say it again." Mac couldn't bear to hear those damn words again. He refused to believe what his boss was telling him.

Jack was _not_ leaving Phoenix.

He _couldn't._

 _ **2016-MacGyver-2016**_

Mac paced back and forth in front of the couch at Jack's apartment, while said partner watched him hesitantly.

"You okay, brother?" Jack asked.

The blonde stayed silent, but Jack could see his bottom lip quivering. Mac seemed to notice as well, as he bit his lip a second later. A few tears escaped his eyes, which he tried to wipe away before his partner noticed. But the older man noticed, and leapt to his feet. He put his hand on Mac's shoulder.

"Come on, man. Talk to me."

"Please don't leave." The words were spoken so softly that Jack strained to hear him. The words broke his heart nonetheless.

"You know I have no say in this. The higher-ups told some other agency about my skills, and they transferred me there. Matty tried to get them to change their minds, but she couldn't. She tried as hard as she could."

"She should've tried harder!" Mac shouted.

"Hey, hey, none of that now. You know there's nothing else she can do. Please don't be mad at Matty because of this."

Mac was about to respond, but he stopped himself. He didn't trust his voice. His words would've come out as some sort of strangled sob if he had opened his mouth, and he couldn't burden Jack with the knowledge that this was causing him so much pain. (Honestly though, he knew Jack knew. There was no way he hadn't picked up on that) . So he let Jack do the talking.

"Listen to me, brother. I may be leaving Phoenix, but I will never, _ever,_ leave you. I will never leave you, or Riley, for that matter, _ever._ You guys are my kids, and I will die before I let anything or anyone hurt you. And I will never abandon you like your bastard of a father."

Mac had to admit, his father was a pretty terrible person (understatement of the _millennium),_ and Mac knew that Jack would try as hard as humanly possible to come home to him. He had to count on that for now.

"You promise you'll come back, no matter what?"

"I swear on all the copies of _Die Hard_ in my apartment. And all of my phones you've had to take apart to build lord-knows-what on our missions that was bound to happen at some point."

Mac couldn't stop the laugh that escaped his lips at that. ' _I'm gonna be ok.'_ He thought to himself. It all of a sudden didn't feel so selfish to want what he wanted. He knew Jack would come home eventually. He could live with that.

 _ **2016-MacGyver-2016**_

A few hours later, Mac and Riley were on the plane on the way to a mission in Mexico City. An undercover spy who was sent to Mexico City to get information on the leader of a drug cartel had been discovered and almost immediately gone missing, and they had to find him before the cartel did.

Mac was trying his hardest not to think about the fact that he would likely never see Jack again. It was selfish of him to want Jack to stay, but he couldn't help it. The man was so much more than an overwatch, he was his partner, his best friend, his brother. Heck, sometimes he even considered him like a surrogate father.

(But honestly it wasn't hard to one-up his actual father, the man who left him after the death of his mother, but also secretly controlled everything in his life.)

He didn't even realize he had fallen asleep, but he didn't mind. He hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in like three weeks. He laid down on the couch and nodded off.

 _It's dark._

 _That much is clear._

 _He couldn't tell where he was or what was happening. It was just dark._

" _Mac?!"_

 _Who was that? Who was calling his name?_

" _Mac! Where are you?"_

 _It sounded like Riley. Her voice was strained, and she sounded far away and like she was in pain. That couldn't be good._

 _He started running. He didn't know where he was going, but her voice seemed closer now, clearer. But now she was clearly injured in some way. He could hear her cries of pain whenever she finished yelling. Someone or something was punishing her for calling for help._

 _H_ e _ran again, until he came to where there was a small light hanging from a ceiling that Mac didn't notice before. Underneath the light was Riley, strapped to a chair, with two heavily armed men standing next to her. She looked terrible. Her hair was wild and wet (why was her hair wet?), and her wrists and ankles were swollen and bleeding from the tight ropes that bound her to the rickety wooded chair. She was covered in bruises, and here were tears cascading down her face like Niagara Falls. His heart clenched at seeing his basically-big-sister like that._

 _He wanted to run up to her and help her, but the men were much bigger and presumably stronger than himself. There was no way he could fight them. It was two against one. (More like five against one. The men had shotguns!) There was nothing around for him to make something with to distract them long enough to get to Riley. He couldn't think of anything. Then it hit him._

 _Jack._

 _He pulled out his phone to call Jack and get him to come and help. He clicked Jack's contact and the phone started ringing. Mac had no idea how the men didn't hear it, but he was thankful._

 _When Jack picked up, he answered "Dalton."_

 _Mac was stunned. Jack always answered Mac's calls by saying something along the lines of "Please tell me you're not dying." His new response was strange. He sounded annoyed._

" _Jack, I need your help. These two guys got Riley and-"_

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

 _Those words sent an icy shock down the blonde's spine. What?_

" _But Jack, Riley's in danger, I need you to come-"_

" _Listen, I don't have time for you. Bye." He interrupted coldly and hung up the phone._

 _Mac couldn't breathe. Jack said he would never leave him, and now he's saying he has no time for him? Fear gripped his chest. He couldn't breathe. He needed to get out, now._

' _No, Mac, you have to calm down. Riley needs you to save her.' He scolded himself._

 _Suddenly, he heard Riley's voice again. But this time, she didn't sound like she was in pain. She sounded worried._

" _Mac? Mac, wake up. Mac!"_

 _He didn't know where he was again. The men and injured-Riley both disappeared, and he was surrounded by darkness once again. He still hear Riley's voice, but it seemed miles and miles away. He heard another voice, this one Jack's._

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

 _It echoed through his brain, getting louder and louder until he couldn't stand it anymore. He shouted, "Stop! Stop saying that!" But the voice continued._

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

 _He felt like his mind was going to explode. There were tears streaming down his face, and his entire head hurt._

" _Stop!"_

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

" _Stop it, please!"_

" _Mac, I don't have time for you right now."_

" _STOP!"_

"-ac! Mac! Wake up, it's just a dream. You're ok!"

Riley.

He shot up and wrapped his arms around her. His entire body was shaking and he couldn't stop the flow of tears that poured from his eyes.

 _Like Niagara Falls._

He shuddered.

"Mac, it's okay, you're okay. Nothings wrong." Riley wasn't used to seeing Mac so rattled, vulnerable, scared. He was quietly crying into her shoulder as she rubbed his back soothingly, trying to calm him down as much as possible. But she knew that there was only one person who could do that. And that person wasn't here. This was up to her.

Mac had calmed down significantly, so she said, "Mac, can you tell me what happened in your dream?"

He took a deep, shaky breath. "It was dark. I could hear you screaming my name. I followed the sound and you were there, and there were two guys there with guns and they kept hurting you whenever you would call for me. I couldn't fight them by myself so I called Jack, but he said-" He was getting choked up, but continued. "He s-said he didn't have time for me anymore. He didn't care about me. He left me there all by myself. I couldn't save you. Then it kept echoing, and I couldn't breathe, and..."

Riley's heart broke as a few tears leaked from her basically-little-brother's glassy eyes. She pulled him closer and whispered, "Mac, Jack would never, ever, in a billion years, even _think_ about leaving you. He cares about you more than you could ever imagine. We all do. You will never need to worry about him not being there for you. Even if it's not immediately, he'll be there when you need him. And until he gets there, I'll be there, Boze will be there, Matty will be there. You've got the whole Phoenix family looking out for you, Mac. Please never forget that."

Mac was silent for a short moment, before responding. "Thank you, Riley. That means a lot. Don't worry, I won't forget that."

She smiled at him, and he returned it. She squeezed his hand one last Ike before standing up to leave. But before she could though, Mac stopped her.

"Riles?"

"Hmm?" She turned around.

"Don't, um, don't tell anyone about that whole," Mac gestured vaguely to the couch, "thing."

She smiled and said, "Deal. I'll come back when we start nearing Mexico City." And she left the main cabin of the plane.

Mac smiled to himself and pulled a paper clip from his pocket. He let his hands bent the paper clip into whatever they chose, while his mind wandered. A few seconds later, the paper clip was bent into the shape of a heart. Simple, yet so meaningful.

He rested his head against the window of the plane, comfortable in knowing that his team, his family, had his back. And in knowing that Jack always did too.

 **The End**

 **I really hope you enjoyed reading my first fanfic ever on this website!**

 ****yay! woohoo! fireworks!****

 **I know that this isn't actually how Jack is going to leave the show, I just had an idea that I needed to get written down. Again, I hope you liked it and don't forget to R &R if you did!**

 **Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own MacGyver or any of the shows characters. I'm simply borrowing the characters and ideas for entertainment purposes.**

 **Be back soon! (actually probably not lol)**

 **With love,**

 **Ally**


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